India, Brazil, Germany, Japan demand UNSC change

New York, Feb 12 (ANI): India, Brazil, Germany and Japan have said that there is a need to open up the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) to new members.

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and his counterparts from Brazil, Germany and Japan-Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Guido Westerwelle and Takeaki Matsumoto, met at the UN headquarters here to begin a new campaign for permanent UNSC seats.

In a joint statement issued here, the ministers agreed that as democracies with shared political values, including respect for the rule of law, respect for human rights and a commitment to multilateralism, the G4 countries hold a number of common positions on major contemporary challenges to international peace and security.

They expressed satisfaction over important contributions being made by their countries to the working of the Security Council and to the maintenance of international peace and security.

Reaffirming their willingness and capacity to take on major responsibilities in this regard, they stated that the international system would benefit from the expansion of the UN Security Council, which would ensure that the Council is truly reflective of current geopolitical realities and make it stronger, more representative, legitimate, effective and efficient.

They also reiterated their commitment as aspiring new permanent members of the UN Security Council, as well as their support for each other's candidatures.

The G4 countries also reaffirmed their view of the importance of Africa to be represented in the permanent membership of an enlarged Council. They also reconfirmed the need for additional non-permanent members and improvement in the Council's working methods.

The ministers expressed gratitude for the efforts made by the President of the General Assembly, Joseph Deiss and Ambassador Zahir Tanin, the Chair of the intergovernmental negotiations, for their facilitating role in the negotiations among the member states.

The Ministers stressed that the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations made it clear that the overwhelming majority of the member states support expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories of the Security Council membership, as well as increased representation of developing countries in both.

They also recognized that there is widespread support for a member-states driven initiative to take the process of the much-needed reform of the Security Council towards a concrete outcome in the current session of the UN General Assembly.

The ministers, therefore, agreed to press ahead, with all necessary steps to achieve at the earliest an expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent membership categories of the Security Council.

Towards this goal, the G4 countries reaffirmed their readiness to reach out to other countries and to work in close cooperation with them in a spirit of flexibility.

They agreed to meet again within the coming quarter to review progress on the decisions taken. (ANI)